If you have missed multiple payments, perhaps its time to set-up payment reminders. In the digital age, you can schedule your cell-phone, laptop, and even email to remind you when a payment is due. On top of this, you can purchase sticky notes and post them around your entire home or office to remind yourself when a specific bill is due. In a lenders eyes, there should not be an excused for a missed payment. Just like the example of lending money to your friend, a lender is expecting to receive their capital back in a timely manner.

Before you apply, we encourage you to carefully consider whether consolidating your existing debt is the right choice for you. Consolidating multiple debts means you’ll have a single monthly payment, but it may not reduce or pay your debt off sooner. The payment reduction may come from a lower interest rate, a longer loan term, or a combination of both. By extending the loan term you may pay more in interest over the life of the loan. By understanding how consolidating your debt benefits you, you’ll be in a better position to decide if it is the right option for you.

Before you apply, we encourage you to carefully consider whether consolidating your existing debt is the right choice for you. Consolidating multiple debts means you’ll have a single monthly payment, but it may not reduce or pay your debt off sooner. The payment reduction may come from a lower interest rate, a longer loan term, or a combination of both. By extending the loan term you may pay more in interest over the life of the loan. By understanding how consolidating your debt benefits you, you’ll be in a better position to decide if it is the right option for you.

But even if you have a low credit score, go ahead and do the research to see if you can find a better deal than the one you have right now. "Those with the best credit scores typically qualify for the best rates on their new personal loans, but don't let an average or even poor score keep you from requesting quotes," says Norris. "This is especially true if you have more than $10,000 in credit card debt and those cards charge exorbitant interest rates, which most of them do."
A key indicator of your financial fitness, your debt-to-income ratio allows financial institutions to weigh your current debt against your income. This helps lenders determine your ability to keep up with new loan payments. Your debt-to-income ratio is calculated by dividing the total sum of all your monthly obligations by your gross monthly income. According to guidelines set by Wells Fargo, a good debt-to-income ratio is 35% or less, a decent one falls into the 36% to 49% range and one that needs improvement is 50% or higher.

If an investigation doesn’t resolve your dispute with the credit reporting company, you can request that a statement of the dispute be included in your file and in future reports. You can also ask the credit reporting company to provide a statement to anyone who received a copy of your report in the recent past. You can expect to pay a fee for this service, and a dispute on your credit report does not improve your credit score.

Remember, there are lots of reasons why your credit may be in rough shape. Most are related to your spending habits. So, for instance, if you missed a few payments or your debt levels are too high (think over 30% of your total available credit limits), disputing errors won’t help your case — you’ll have to make some changes to improve your credit scores. And you may have to wait a bit to see an uptick.

The Island Approach also gives you a built-in warning system for overspending. If you ever see finance charges on an account earmarked for everyday expenses, you’ll know you’re overspending. Separating everyday expenses from a balance that you’re carrying from month to month will help you save on finance charges, too. Interest charges are based on an account’s average daily balance, after all.

If you’re unable to pay all of your bills on time, “cushion the blow to your credit score by defaulting on just one account. There is a component in the FICO score called 'prevalence,'" says John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education at SmartCredit.com. "That means having five collections is worse than having one." He recommends that you “let the account with the highest monthly payment fall behind to free up more money every month to pay your other debt obligations.”
The Capital One® Secured Mastercard® is another option for those who want to strengthen their credit score. This card offers a potentially lower minimum security deposit than other cards, starting as low as $49, based on creditworthiness. Be aware the lower deposit is not guaranteed and you may be required to deposit $99 or $200. You can deposit more before your account opens and get a maximum credit limit of $1,000.
Consolidating credit cards and leveraging low balance transfer offers has the potential to increase your credit score. But to accomplish this, it’s important to follow a few pointers. For example, for the general population, 30 percent of the FICO® Credit Score is determined by “credit utilization,” which is the amount of credit actually being used.1
Many credit card issuers will allow you to transfer money to your checking account. Or, they will offer you checks that you can write to yourself or a third party. Check online, because many credit card issuers will let you transfer money directly to your bank account from your credit card. Otherwise, call your issuer and ask what deals they have available for “convenience checks.”
Additionally, the security deposit you used to obtain the card is used if you were to default on your payment. However, this is not the case if the balance in which you have defaulted happens to be higher than the security deposit amount. Using the security deposit means that even if you default, the card will be paid because it is secured by your funds and you will not have the account end up in collections due to nonpayment.
If you are struggling to pay off multiple credit cards, consolidating your debt may allow you to reduce your interest rates and lower your monthly payment. However, a lower monthly payment can mean a longer repayment term and more interest paid over the life of the loan. Whether you should consolidate your credit card debt depends on your individual circumstances and the terms of the consolidation.
This story is long winded and all, but the point is, it doesn't matter how bad you have screwed up. It happens to the best of people (I'm an alright kind of guy). But the only way to fix it is to put your foot down, get dirty and fix it. It won’t always be as quick as this and will most likely take a year or more to get in a good place. Then years of maintenance. But if you need a quick hit to your score in a good way, read through your reports carefully (with a credit advisor if you need to. Many personal banks will do this with your for free if you have accounts there in good standing) If it looks like there's something off or something you can fix, call your broker, go over the report with them and STRONGLY insist on a rapid rescore. They will get all your info and see what they can do.
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